


Hallucinating

by Bubblegum_monroe



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fae AU, Fantasy Weed, Other, almost sex but sometimes u move too fast yknow, i started writing this months ago forgot abt it and kept going from where i left off, so i have no memory of like the first half of this, which also means i dont know what tags to use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:51:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18265445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblegum_monroe/pseuds/Bubblegum_monroe
Summary: It isn't every day that you start seeing creatures out of myth, nightmares, and legends walking the streets like it's nothing.It also isn't every day that you start dating someone you met in the middle of the night.





	Hallucinating

The first time she truly sees a fae is late at night on a grocery shopping run. Neon lights from twenty four hour businesses lighting up the damp sidewalk and reflecting in what puddles remained from the day.    
She’s bundled up in a thick coat to keep out the chill and rain if it comes back. The plastic of the heavy grocery bags cutting into her arms as she walked briskly towards her apartment building. She isn’t worried about banshees or redcaps or any sort of supernatural creature watching her or hurting her. She’s worried about men in alleyways, and about having money for her electricity by the time she has to pay the bill. 

There’s the smell of smoke in the air when she approaches the building, faintly sweet and definitely very reminiscent of her brother’s college dorm. She clears her throat, pulling her shirt up over her nose as she continues on.

There’s someone sitting on the steps to the apartment building, they bring a blunt to their mouth and puff out smoke. She blinks, and she is certain that there are shapes in the smoke. That colours swirl inside of it, and there are more stars hidden within it than there were showing in the sky.   
They don’t notice her, they pull at some of the technicolour fluff that lines their parka hood and the smoke hangs around their head. 

She blinks again, and her mind ignores the reality of the smoke.    
‘ _ It’s just smoke, _ ’ She thinks, ‘ _ It can’t be anything but grey. _ ’ 

“You’re not supposed to smoke near the doorways,” She says, shuffling in place. He’s blocking her way inside, she was going to have to ask him to move at some point. Besides she should remind him anyway.

He jumps at the sound of her voice, hand waving the smoke away from his eyes so he can get a good look at her. They are a striking purple, framed with white lashes and impeccably applied eyeliner. He squints at her, as though sizing her up. Or expecting her to ignore him and just barge passed him to get to the door.   
She does neither. 

“Are you waiting for someone inside?” She asks, trying to get some sort of verbal response out of him. He looks almost surprised when she speaks again and stands up. Brushing ashes off of his parka, his blunt between his lips while his hands brush it all off. 

“No, I’m not waiting for anyone,” He smiles at her and holds out his hand. She glances down at his ring adorned hand and back up again. There’s a golden choker around his neck too, and it almost glows in the darkness and neon. “Asra- My name that is, I’m Asra.”

“Call me Eos,” She smiles back at him, shifting her groceries around so she has an arm free to shake his hand. Cans of food clink together in the plastic. When she touches his skin there’s an icy cold wind that rushes through. It cuts through her coat like it’s nothing. Their hair, his fluffy and white, is caught by the sudden gust of wind. Whipping against their faces, or in Eos’ case her hair whips him. She breathes out, breath foggy. If it stays like this, she’s going to have to turn on her heating. She’d rather not. Despite the wind, the smoke coming off the still lit cigarette doesn’t waver. “You should probably put that out you know. Police always drive by for a sweep this time of night.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” He says, releasing her hand. The cold begins to die off, regardless she still tugs on her coat. “Do you live here?” He gestures towards the building, taking another puff from the blunt in his other hand. The smoke she is  _ certain  _ forms into snowflakes and flowers but when she blinks it’s gone again.

“I… Do,” Eos admits, a bit hesitant, but it wasn’t like she would’ve immediately been caught lying anyway. “What about you? I haven’t seen you around before, but that might just be me.” She shifts her grocery bags back around to both hands, holding them in front of her legs.    
‘ _ I need to sleep _ ,’ She thinks to herself, ‘ _ I’m seeing things _ .’

“No, I don’t, I live just around the corner actually,” There’s something odd about that, but she can’t quite place it. “You often go out late at night? Or was this a one-off thing-- Oh, do you want some help with those?” He gestures towards her shopping bags, bending at the waist to try reaching for one.

“Um, sure, that’d be awful sweet of you,” She gives a small laugh, a bit nervous about letting him come up to her apartment. Something flashes across his face, but before she could try to decipher it he takes a few of the bags from her. He smiles again, dropping the blunt in his hand to the ground before putting it out with his shoe. A sign flashes behind his head, making his hair look like a halo. There’s something unnerving about his eyes. He heads up the stairs, and all she can do is  _ stare _ , he stops half way and turns back to her.

“Coming?” He asks, expression turning amused as she jumps slightly and heads up the stairs after him. 

The inside of the building is warmer than the outside, but not by much. It stops the wind at least. They head into the elevator, Eos pressing the button to her floor and for the moment putting the bags down to give her hands a rest. 

“You never answered my question.”

“Hm?” She turns her head towards him, rubbing her palms together. “Oh, sorry. No, not every time. I just get really busy days sometimes. It’s easier to just stay up and head to the store at night.” 

“Pretty brave then, things can get dangerous this time, things go bump in the night and all that,” He runs a hand through his hair, despite the light dim light of the elevator, he looks  _ good _ . She looks away, cheeks feeling warm. He’s a stranger she found on the doorstep, she shouldn’t be inviting him up to her home let alone even thinking he’s  _ pretty _ . She snorts at his words though, giving him a disbelieving look.

“‘Things that go bump in the night’? Please, the only things that do that here are the neighbours in the apartment above me and a couple of college students.” Bump in the night, of course he means the supernatural when he says that. She can hear it in the tone of his voice. She shrugs. She’s had her own crazy experiences, but those were explainable. Whether there was an afterlife or not wasn’t her business yet, but she hardly doubted that ghosts were real when they all seemed to come from any decade that wasn’t semi-modern. Where were the nineteen eighties ghosts? That’s what she wanted to know.

“If that’s what you think,” he bumps his arm against hers, picking the bags up again as the elevator doors began to open. “But having some room for a little bit of doubt never hurts.”

“I have room for it, but I also have to say that it’s got to be replicable. If you can’t get the same consistent result, then is it real or is it someone saying it is? Just believing isn’t enough, not in this day and age.” They walk down the hallway together, passing apartments of varying noise levels. 

“Science type?” He asks, standing by her door as she unlocks it, pushing the door open and turning on the light. When she does a meow sounds from somewhere deep in the apartment, her cat clearly happy to have company once again.

“Not necessarily, I read tarot and I like crystals and junk. But, ghosts and stories? Some of it might be real, but a lot of the time it isn’t.” Then again, she can’t quite claim tarot in the category of  _ truth _ . It’s an effect, vague enough to apply to anyone. That’s how fortune telling works. She puts her grocery bags onto her kitchen bench, pushing them against the wall so she can deal with them later. “Hey, do you want like a coffee or something?” 

He shakes his head, more concerned with the cat pawing at his leg than eating or drinking anything here. He bends down, picking the cat up.    
It’s a large cat, a large breed. The cat was surprisingly friendly with him, nuzzling up under his chin. She reaches out, scratching the top of their head.

“No, I think I’ll be alright, Eos,” He runs his fingers through the cat’s thick fur. Scratching at their ears. “You like cats?”

“I must to have one,” She begins pulling groceries from out of the bags, placing a few cans of cat food to the side. “His name is Garbage, and he’s a very charming and handsome young man.” Asra laughs, letting the cat go back onto the floor and reach up the counter to try and look at the cat food. “He’s also always hungry for some reason, but he’s my baby.” She smiles up at Asra, meeting his eyes. 

“He’s wonderful--” Asra starts to say before Eos’ phone buzzes inside of her pocket, cursing under her breath as she digs for it. The screen lights up with the text notification, she rolls her eyes at the name on the screen.

“Sorry, that was just my brother--”

“I should go, I’ve taken up plenty of your time,” He interrupts, holding his hand out again for her shake again. When she grasps his hand, this time it is ice cold. Her window blasts open all of the sudden, snow drifting in. She rushes to shut it, making sure to lock it so it can’t open again. 

“Sorry, I-” He brushes snow from her hair, closer than she remembered him being. He has the faintest freckles across his nose, “I didn’t expect the window to open like that.” She clears her throat, side stepping him and heading for the front door. 

“It’s fine,” He follows after her, hand that had brushed the snow away clenching. “Windows do that.”

“Apparently. I’ll see you around then?” She steps out with him into the hallway, hands shoved deep into her pockets. He glances to the elevator and looks back at her with a grin.

“I think I’d like that,” He nods his head at her, and turns to leave.    
His ears are awfully pointed, and when he lights another blunt the technicolour smoke returns. Stars and shapes flying before her eyes as she watches him walk down the hallway. 

“Hey!” She calls out to him, taking a step forward and thinking better of it. When he turns to her, eyebrow raised. She’s unnerved, he’d been so  _ odd  _ about the supernatural from what little they’d discussed. “Nice ears,” She steps back into her apartment and closes the door firmly shut.    
Unseen through doors and walls, Asra stares at her closed door in shock. Soon enough laughing before disappearing around a corner. The only sign of his presence is a light covering of snow over the carpet. 

She puts it down to lack of sleep, that perhaps her entire meeting with him had just been a dream. Smoke is grey, no one has pointed ears.    
Or if it had happened, she was remembering it wrong.

“I’m not crazy,” She says to her cat as they weave between her legs. She sheds her coat, hanging it up by the door. “I’m just tired.” The cat looks up at her and purrs, reaching up her leg to sniff at the hand she’d used to shake Asra’s. Soon rubbing their head against her hand like it was a particularly pleasant smell.

“You’re such a druggie, you bastard cat,” She rolls her eyes and heads for the kitchen again to unpack her groceries. “He smells like weed, you’re not supposed to like that, you  _ animal _ .” The cat in question promptly jumps up onto the counter, pawing at the cans of cat food. Ignoring her protest completely until she pulls him off the counter. “Stop it, I’ll feed you once I get everything packed away.” 

The cat meows indignantly but stays on the ground, often at her legs, as she unpacked the bags and puts every item in its place. 

“I mean, he was pretty sweet regardless of the whole smoking on the doorstep thing, could’ve done without that,” She scoops the cat food into a bowl against the kitchen wall. The cat’s head pushing passed before she even finished putting it all in there. “Do you think he’ll come near here again? He was weird, but not entirely uncomfortable.” She squats down next to the cat bowl, crossing her arms over her knees. Watching the cat eat away and not contribute to the conversation. “Hyperion would hate him, just on account of the smoking alone.” She chuckles before lurching forward and getting to her feet. Remembering that he’d texted her earlier, she hurries for her coat and digs the phone out. 

‘ _ mom wants dinner on sunday’ _ __   
_ ‘r u busy rn?’ _ _   
_ __ ‘bitch hurry up’

She lets out a slow breath at the mention of a Sunday dinner with her family, or rather with the parents. For as long as she’d known they’d been… odd people, cultists really. Like Scientologists, but somehow not as popular. Which really she’s thankful for.   
Her parents were something she could not entirely escape from, or ignore. Some days she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

‘ _ ill be there’ _ _   
_ _ ‘sorry someone was w/ me’ _

She grimaces, Hyperion will question the who but she can deal with that later.

‘ _ gn’  _

She puts her phone on the charger, looking back at her cat still eating his food. At least she had the cat.    
She taps her fingers on the counter as she heads for her bedroom. Tomorrow ought be better.

Tomorrow held the same crappy weather as it had the day before. Rain, cold, the chance of sleet. She tucked her inhaler into the pocket of the same coat she’d worn the day before, promising her cat she’d walk him that day if it got warmer before leaving to head to work. 

She sees an odd purple haze over the stairs as she passes them to head for the elevator. She pauses, takes a few steps back to check it out again. The purple haze dissipating more and more the longer she looks at it.

“I’m just tired,” She says and heads into the elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor. She should see if she could squeeze in a nap if she got a break today.    
Asra is in the lobby of the apartment building when she exits the elevator. Looking unhappy as a taller, blonde, man talks to him for a while.   
Kind of smarmy looking.

She stands just outside of the elevator, one hand clutched to her chest as she watches the brief exchange. Asra passing something to the man before he leaves, his hands burrowing deep into his pockets. He notices her then, looking surprised before smiling. Warmth entering his face again.    
She can’t just stand and stare.

“You alright?” She asks when she reaches him, bumping her elbow against him in some attempt to be lighthearted or friendly, “He didn’t look too invigorating to talk to.”

“Oh, him?” Asra runs a hand through his hair, as he does so the doors to the building blow open and usher in a surprising amount of snow for a day that was supposed to be largely rainy. “He’s just exhausting to talk to, or be near. Or exist on the same plane on.” 

“Well…” She felt bad for Asra, besides, she’d also spent part of that conversation spying on him. Even if she couldn’t hear anything. “Do you want a coffee? I work at a diner sort of nearby, so it’ll be my treat.” She bumps her hip against his, laughing when he does.

“I think I’d like that, lead the way,” He holds his arm out for her to put her hand through with a slight bow, with a giggle she does a close approximation of a curtsey and together they leave the building.    
They pause for a moment outside the building, looking at the dead plants in the garden beds that line the stairway. 

“It’s a shame, isn’t it,” She says, fingers brushing against the leaves of a dying rose bush. She shakes her head, “C’mon, I’ll be late if we waste too much time.”

“How long is your shift today?” He asks her not too soon after the apartments are out of sight, arms still looped together. In some odd way she feels like she’s almost stepped back in time.    
“What’re you doing afterwards?” 

“I work until around eight tonight, so if you were planning on asking me out it’ll have to wait until after then,” He splutters, red entering his cheeks and colouring those ears. She could’ve sworn that before she blinked they were pointed. “I’m  _ joking _ , well not about my shift.”

“I-Ah, I didn’t think that those shifts would be so long,” He clears his throat, tugging at the fur lining of his coat.

“Place is shit.”

It doesn’t take long to arrive at the diner. Cheap looking but looked after. Before she clocks on she orders Asra his coffee then gets to work.

He stays there her entire shift, occasionally ordering something like a coffee or food to have an excuse to stay longer. Not that he’d of been likely to be kicked out, it was like the other waitresses didn’t even notice him unless she brought attention to him. Then they forgot all over again. In the end, she just takes all of his orders.

“New boyfriend?” A voice behind her asks as she prepares another pot of coffee behind the counter, she glances over her shoulder to see familiar red hair. Portia. Honestly one of her favourite people to work with.    
She smiles and shakes her head.

“No, he just hangs around my apartment building, not that it’s a bad sight,” She scratches an itch on her cheek, turning to actually face Portia but getting distracted by something outside. By the sight of half human creatures and trees with faces. “Hey, hold on-”

“ _ Eosphorus! _ Order’s up.” She snaps her attention away from the window, the illusion of something else out there breaking. She gathers the plates from the kitchen and serves them out.    
Asra gestures for someone to take an order, but before she can get there Portia steps in.   
She wonders if the others were ignoring him on purpose.

Eos watches them from the corner of her eye as she takes a different couple’s order, writing it down the occasional wisps of Portia and Asra’s conversation reaching her.

“-- _ You fall in-- --too easy-- _ ”   
“-- _ That kind of talk is--” _ __   
_ “-- You can’t--  --around like--” _ _   
_ __ “-- This isn’t like you, Asra--”

She wonders if they know each other, or how they know each other.    
The rest of the day is somewhat slow, she takes the rest of Asra’s orders and he smiles at her whenever she looks his way.

He’s still there at the end of her shift, and he walks her home. Letting her lean against him.

“You didn’t have to stay you know,” She tells him when they reach the apartment building, the two of them just standing at the foot of the stairs.

“I don’t mind,” He rubs the back of his neck. His hand brushing against the rose bushes, one rose that she could’ve sworn wasn’t there this morning blooms. Bright and full. “Besides, who doesn’t love company?”

“I suppose you’re right,” She laughs, brushing some hair behinds her ear before reaching forward. Taking on of his hands in a loose grip. His skin is cold, and she just puts it down to the weather. “Thank you, Asra,” She lets go of his hand and starts heading up the stairs. “I’ll see you around, good night.”

He smiles at her and tilts his head in goodbye. She starts heading up the stairs, but hesitates. Taking one step down and half turning towards him.

“Do you want to get coffee tomorrow? Proper talk to each other coffee?” 

“I think I’d like that, is eleven good for you?”

“Eleven is perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He grins at her before walking off on his own. She watches him for a bit before she enters the building. Bumping into someone who was exiting at the same time.

“Sorry,” She mumbles, blinking just as the sight of a rather humanoid mushroom entered her vision. Gone as soon as her eyes opened again.   
Unnerved, she rushes for her apartment. Her cat oddly quiet when she gets home, usually he’s meowing and carrying on. But he almost seems solemn, or melancholy.   
After feeding him, and then herself, she falls into bed and hopes that tomorrow will be different. That the sleep will clear her mind.

The next day isn’t necessarily cold, but it’s not entirely warm either. Nonetheless, it’s a day where Eos feels more than comfortable showing off some more skin again rather than layering up.

Her cat meows impatiently at her while she frets by her front door, heels clicking against the floor as she paces. 

“It’s not a date,” She says to Garbage as he licks one of his hind legs. She fusses with her hair in the hallway mirror, licking her fingers to stick loose short pieces of hair back to where she’d originally placed them. “It’s just coffee. He’s cute, yeah, but it is  _ just  _ coffee.”

Her cat meows in response, or rather in recognition that she is making noises. Hopping up onto the window that looked out over the street. She leans towards it, spotting Asra below.

“Right,” She nods as though the meow had any meaning to it, “We’ll have fun and it’ll be nice and dandy- God. Who says  _ ‘dandy’ _ ? Me I guess.” She rolls her eyes and squares her shoulders. “I’m not nervous, no Dogmatik ó is nervous, especially not me. Especially not me when it comes to attractive people.”    
There’s more than a few reasons as to why she’s a family disappointment after all. 

She checks her teeth for lipstick and smooths down the front of her clothes before leaving the apartment and her cat to their own devices. Immediately upon the door locking, the cat jumps up onto a table and continues the cleaning routine.

It’s like he never leaves those stairs really. Leaning against the railing, he stills wears the coat, but it’s open now. Revealing a garish technicolour shirt to match the fur. He’s a fan of rainbows apparently. She suddenly feels like she’s quite bleak in the colour department next to him. Most people would really. 

“Colourful,” He drops his returning blunt and grinds it beneath his shoe when she steps down to him. One hand tugging on the fabric of the shirt. “Maybe I’ll borrow it.” 

“Take it anytime,” He smiles and pushes away from the handrail. They’re closer than they need to be, but Eos hardly minds. She keeps her grip on his shirt, biting her lip to try and hide a grin as she looks up at him. “You’re touchy for a first date,” He says but his hands ghost at her hips regardless.

“First date, is it?” His fingers pinch at the fabric of her dress. At any other time, with any  _ other  _ person Eos would press herself against him by now. Daring him to go further, to touch her and hear her breath hitch.   
She just, can’t do it with him. Like there’s something in the back of her mind telling her not to.

A meow sounds from behind her and when she turns to look Garbage trots down the stairs, leash in his mouth and dragging along between his legs.

“What?” She’s stunned. She left Garbage back up in her apartment, and put the leash away in the cupboard. Did someone let him out, but then how did he get the leash? Why was he  _ carrying  _ it? She steps backwards, distancing herself from Asra as though the cat were a chaperone as opposed to an odd pet.

“Looks like he wants to come along,” Asra says and gets down onto his knee, hand reaching out to try and pet him but Garbage is less than pleased. Swatting at his hand before pressing against Eos’ legs. “Feisty today. Shall we take him?”

“I guess- I,” She makes a sound in her throat. Still confused as to how Garbage got out of the apartment. She knew she locked it, she’d checked. “Sorry. Yes, I guess we should.” She kneels down, clipping Garbage into the harness. An uneasy feeling in her stomach. She should go check her apartment, she really should.   
But she doesn’t want to sully the mood of this date.    
“Let’s go now our chaperone is ready,” She says with a laugh. Wishing her unsteadiness away. She stands, turns, and in that movement she sees gigantic wings that look like they’re half made of glass and sees more ice and snow than there should be.    
She blinks and it’s gone.

“Are you alright?” Asra asks, more concern in his voice than there should be.

“I’m fine, just- thought I saw my brother across the street but it wasn’t. C’mon, we don’t want to spend the whole day here.” He looks at her oddly, worried.    
He wonders if she’s seeing more things than she should be, more than she already has. 

She holds out her free hand to him, grinning to try and hide her uneasiness. He smiles in return when he takes her hand, their fingers linking together as they head down the street. The cat glaring daggers at him before they head off. 

They walk together for a while, Garbage forcing them to pause so he could sniff at something or roll in the dirt occasionally. They don’t mind, the delay is just an excuse to talk more. To spend as much time as they could together. Garbage always pressing to move on, demanding really, when Asra even hints at returning any particularly flirty advances of Eos’.

They reach a cafe at some point, unable to head inside out of the sun with Garbage with them so they steal a table just outside. Eos leaving the cat with Asra while she ordered for them.

Garbage sat atop the table, licking his chest and ignoring Asra’s stare.

“What’s the problem?” The cat’s ear flicks but otherwise refuses to acknowledge Asra. He lets out a frustrated breath. “You were more than fine with me before but today it’s like you despise me, which is unusually for a  _ cat _ .” He crosses his arms on the table. Not too soon after a hand reaching out to poke at Garbage’s paw. 

Garbage’s tail flicks and a soft mewl comes from him.

“I’m not- Who taught you to swear like that? Someone ought to wash your mouth out with soap,” Asra pokes again at the cat’s paw, getting a swipe in return before he notices Eos’ coming out of the cafe with their drinks in hand. He sits back up, Garbage’s tail flicking back at forth at the almost down right  _ smitten  _ expression on Asra’s face when Eos reappears.

She sets his cup down in front of him and he’s more than quick to take it into his hands. Feeling the warmth radiating out between his palms. 

“There, I didn’t know what you’d like and in my experience the stoners I know prefer tea. I hope you like it,” She sits down across from him, picking Garbage up and placing him in her lap before she picks her own cup up. 

“I’ll put it down to lucky guessing rather than everyone who smokes weed is into all kinds of leaves,” He grins at her and takes a sip. Jumping and sputtering at the heat, she laughs. Free hand covering her mouth and he doesn’t mind the burn while she looks happy.

“Oh my god, are you alright?” She asks him, taking the serviette that had been wrapped around her cup to dab at some of the tea that had spilled onto his shirt. “I suppose I should’ve told you that, like most tea, it was hot.” He holds the cup away from her while she tries to dry some of the spots on his shirt.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” He chuckles and puts the cup down, taking the napkin from her to finish the job. He supposes he’d expected it to be cooler in his own hands, he must have forgotten. He puts the napkin down, taking her hand across the table. Her skin was smooth, soft. 

“So- Jesus your hands are cold- what do you do all day, Mr. Asra weed-man,” She sips at her tea, eyebrow raising as she does so. Turning her hand to link her fingers with his. She wonders whether his blood circulation is alright, he’s freezing. “I mean, besides smoke weed on the street without getting caught.”

He laughs again, rubbing circles against her skin with his thumb. Sipping from his cup before he answers. Mostly to buy himself time to come up with some sort of lie. A believable one.

“I read fortunes,” He decides on and puts down the cup. Putting his hand into a pocket of his jacket and extending his will to pull a deck of tarot cards out. Placing the deck down on the table between them he lets go of her hand and instead begins to shuffle them. “Want a free reading?” 

She looks over the cards with a look of both interest and doubt. Biting her lip before she nods and leans forward, a new spark in her eye.    
“Go ahead, maybe you’ll predict how I die.”

“It’s hardly that accurate,” He laughs and splits the deck into three smaller groups. “We’ll do something simple, just pick a deck, then pick three cards from it.”

She’s slightly heGarbaget as she reaches out, tapping a finger on the leftmost deck. He swipes the other two, and spreads the deck out in a fan like pattern. She plucks three cards out after a few seconds of deliberation, as though choosing the  _ proper  _ cards could be decided through staring and guessing.   
Which is not exactly incorrect. 

He flips the first card.   
The devil.   
The second.   
Two of cups.   
The third.   
The tower.

“Oh that doesn’t look good,” She says taking a closer look at the first and third cards. The images don’t exactly look pleasant, and they rarely mean anything nice regardless.

“Here,” Asra pulls the first card towards him and turns it around. “This one is more representative of a shadow, typically a person’s darker side. Negative forces that influence life, and as the first card this is something in the past, or something from the past that still has a presence in your life. Ah,” He picks the card up, looking it over. There’s a prickle at the back of Eos’ neck, like there’s something unnerving about it all. 

‘ _ It’s the Barnum Effect, that is all. It’s general enough to apply to anyone, _ ’ She takes a breath and leans closer, waiting for him to continue.

“It’s like you were tricked, into thinking or believing something and it’s changed what you were meant to be,” He muses, turning the card over in his hands. “Like cult belief, or just fanaticism, from someone in an authority position.”

“Weird. Next?” He places the card down and picks up the next one, smiling like he had when he saw her come out of the cafe.

“Ace of cups, now this could be the beginning of a new business partnership, or meeting a new lover. It’s a card of mutual benefits, for relationships it’s mutual attraction and giddiness. For business--”

“Oh I think I know full well what it’s referring to, and it isn’t business,” Her foot slides against his ankle beneath the table. He swallows and picks the next card. Her laughter would be contagious if he weren’t so into the actual reading.

“The tower,” He takes a deep breath, holding the card made him nervous. “The tower represents sudden change, the unexpected. It is destruction and chaos, ripping apart the idea you’ve personally formed on reality. Your perspective of it. It could be divorce, a death, any event that shakes your foundations. Change is inevitable, supposedly out of good intentions. Self improvement.”

“That was much more depressing than I thought it’d be,” ‘ _ Barnum effect’ _ she reminds herself and laughs, running her fingers back through her hair. Trying to shake off the uneasy feeling the reading gave her. “The second one was alright, I liked the sound of it.” She winks at him, Garbage grumbling in her lap at the same time. He laughs, warm in his cheeks. It had been the better part of the reading, the rest worrying. 

“I wouldn’t worry too much, it’s harmless really,” He rests his cheek in his hand, the other gathering up the cards to put them back into his pocket where they could disappear from existence for a bit. “But that’s what I do.”

“People love it, I bet, especially with a voice like yours,” She grins, this time her hand reaching across to hold his. Squeezing gently when she grabs hold of his hand. Despite what she says and how she acts, the reading does weigh heavy on her. She knows how tarot works, how divination works, but it’s still so  _ close _ . More than it should be.

He lifts he hand up, pressing his lips to her knuckles with a smug look on his face. Her heart skips and bangs against her sternum at the gesture. She wants to take him home.    
Instead she laughs and drinks her tea. Making further small talk with him.

“Oh, are you done?” He asks eventually, pointing out her empty cup, half standing up. “Do you want another?”

“Only if it’s a cup of you,” ‘ _ That is the lamest thing I have ever said to a man _ ,’ She thinks as she laughs at herself, mentally prepared to fully deck herself in the face. She clears her throat and shakes her head, half brushing her hair in front of her face as though she can hide herself from her own words. “No- No I think I’ll be alright, I’m hungry though.”

“You can have a piece of me if that’ll fill you up,” Asra says, gathering their cups to return later when they go to leave. Eos snorts, giving him a look of disbelief.

“Oh that is the worst.”

“Oh, what  _ I  _ said is the worst?” They grin at each other, and she gently taps her foot against his outer thigh under the table. His hand reaches under before she can retract her leg, catching her by the ankle, hand sliding up to her calf. Bending slightly at the waist to reach under the table. 

“Planning on pulling down my garters, my good sir?” She bats her lashes at him as his fingers curl over the hemline of the stockings the aforementioned garters held up, pulling at it to let the fabric snap against her thigh. He opens his mouth to say something before Garbage yowls and jumps on the table. Knocking the cups over. “Oh you- C’mon, you’re not supposed to be up on tables, baby.” She purses her lips and retracts her leg from Asra’s grip. Scooping the cat off of the table and helping Asra right the cups again. 

“Probably not the place to, ah, be concerned with, uh,  _ that  _ anyway. That’s what your apartment is for,” He raises his eyebrows, smiling at the cat, Garbage’s ears momentarily flattening against his head. 

“It’s something to look forward to,” She puts Garbage on the ground and stands up, smoothing her skirt back down. “Do you want something to eat?” 

“What uh- What’re you having?”

“I’ll get you something.”

The rest of the date flies by. Filled with laughing at awkward jokes and some actual good humor. A few pictures taken together, mostly silly, wherever they drifted to after the cafe. Pulling faces and lifting Garbage up to be a cute feature in the photos. They’re out of breath and still laughing when they reach Eos’ apartment building.  

She tugs on his hand, one foot on the first step to the door.

“Do you want to come up? We could have a few drinks”    
He wants to. He wants to go up with her to her apartment. To get drunk, or get high, and to kiss her and fuck her.   
To wake up in the morning with a headache, but her soft body in his arms. 

“I shouldn’t,” he says, squeezing her hand before letting her fingers go. “Next time.” 

She hums but shrugs. She could look forward to a next time.   
“In that case,” She takes her foot off of the step and takes a fistful of his shirt collar. Tugging him down and pressing her lips against his. He freezes at first yet his hands find themselves at her hips regardless and he could feel her lipstick smudge and transfer onto his. Their hearts pound in their chests, cheeks burning red.   
She parts from him slowly, smoothing his shirt down when she lets him go. The words he’d said during the tarot reading going through her mind again. 

“Can I see you tomorrow?” He asks.

“Yes,” She digs her phone out, holding it out towards him, “Put your number in, we can text and decide when to meet up.”

He watches her as she heads back up the steps when he returns her phone. He smiles at her when she looks at him over his shoulder just before she enters the building.

He lingers for a little while. Wishing he’d actually accepted her offer, anyone else would’ve said yes. He brings his fingers up to his lips, the phantom feeling of her own still remaining. He smiles, purple lipstick coming off onto his fingertips.

Eos watches Garbage run into the apartment and disappear before she locks the front door behind her. Leaning heavily against it as she runs through how she’d kissed Asra again in her mind, sinking down to the ground with a wide smile. Her hands coming up and covering her face as she squeals to herself. 

“Oh my  _ god _ ,” She says to herself and takes a deep breath. Unable to smother her grin. 

I t feels like summer in the dead of winter the next day, the change in weather is sudden but not unwelcome. It’s the kind of day for shorts and long socks. 

Before she leaves the apartment, she takes the time to put her inhaler in the bag small bag hung on her shoulder. Her cat impatiently pawing at the door, Garbage’s leash enveloped by the amount of fluff and fur he had. 

“We’re going, we’re going,” She laughs as the cat immediately rushes through the door as soon as it is open but a sliver. She walks down the hallway with the cat leading, taking the stairs rather than the elevator. She passes a couple ascending, pressing to the side to let them pass. In the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw the skin of one turn green and leathery. Features sharpen impossible, and wings on the other. But when she stops and half turns back to look at them, they seem as normal as any other couple in the building. 

“Seeing things,” She mumbles to herself and picks up the pace down the stairs. It must be stress, or she’s having a very slow psychological breakdown.    
She hopes it’s just stress. 

When she exits out of the building she sees Asra again, not taking over the steps this time but leaning against the railing. Still smoking. In the daylight she could see his highlighter pop on those honestly  _ fantastic _ cheekbones of his. She wasn’t sure if she should ask him for his techniques or ask him for a date.

Her cheeks go pink at the thought.

“Still hanging around?” She says, taking a few steps down, her cat straining against the leash to brush against his legs. 

He turns to her, and even in the daylight she can see stars in the smoke. It wisps up towards her, and she waves it away from her face with a hand.

“It’s a good spot to do some people watching,” He says, and takes another drag from his blunt before gesturing at her with it. “Not a fan of weed?”

“Asthmatic actually,” Once she says it his eyes go wide and he drops the handmade cigarette, stomping it out. “You didn’t have to- I have an inhaler it’s fine.” 

“No, no. It’s nothing I can’t easily remake later,” He stuffs his hands into the pockets of the parka he was still wearing despite the heat today. The fur lining looked way too warm. He took the time to look her over while she was considering in her mind how high he had to be in order to be comfortable in his winter wear at the moment. “I like the shirt.” 

She raises a hand to her chest, fingers digging into the mesh fabric. It was hot, it was perfectly reasonable for her to be wearing something like this.   
Besides, it wasn’t like anyone was going to see her cute bras and bralettes unless she did at this stage in her life. 

“Nothing better to wear during the hot weather,” She grins, more confident with him in the daylight than she’d been when they’d first met at night. She walks down the steps, fingers trailing along the fur lining of his coat, just brushing against his jaw. “I like your jacket, it’s cute,” She brushes passed, starting to head down the street. She smiles to herself, biting his lip as she hears hurried footsteps coming up behind her when she’s half way down the street.

“Mind if I join you?” Asra asks, bumping against her shoulder. Playing pretend at coming across each other, rather than arranging to meet. His jacket now thrown over his arm, now showing a white shirt that was hardly deserving of the term “buttoned up.” She glanced at him, noticing an odd white mark on his chest. A white tattoo. She’s seen weirder.

“Not at all, the more the merrier,” She raises her face up towards the sun. The cat mewls at Asra, taking a moment to rub against his legs and almost trip him up in the process. “He likes you, even if he’s trying to make you fall on your face.”

“I like him too, despite that,” He bends down for a moment as they walk to pat Garbage’s head. They go around a corner, one of Asra’s hands brushes against her own. After that he shoves them in his pockets. His skin was  _ freezing _ . “Not every day I see someone out walking a cat rather than a dog.”

“Not everyday someone’s hands are ice cold on a day like this either,” She scratches the side of her nose, half turning to avoid bumping into someone along the sidewalk. From the corner of her eye she sees Asra’s expression become stricken, then sheepish. “I walk him because he’s an indoor cat. The apartment building wouldn’t like him wandering around the building so I take him out myself. Besides, I think he likes the walks. Gets to see all sorts of places.” 

“I think you’re right, he seems happy out here with you,” Asra says, voice a little quieter than it had been before. He clears his throat, hand fiddling with  _ something  _ in his pocket. “Why not get a place with a garden?”

She snorts and shakes her head. Her parents had a place like that, her aunts and uncles had places like that, friends did too. Gardens and gardens, trees and places for flowers. Blooming petals and growing vegetables.   
One day, maybe.

“I can’t afford a place like that, and won’t be able to for a very long time. Have to save up money for that, and that’ll take time,” She shrugs, kicking a small rock on the sidewalk. “I’ll have to save up for half my life for that, ‘course, I could get a sugar daddy instead,” She laughs, looking further up the street. A strange purple haze flashing across her vision. She frowns, blinking hard to try and decipher what she’s looking at. At first she thinks she sees a rock. Then it moves, a grotesque and awfully wet face emerging from folds of rock and leather-y skin. “Hey what the fuck is tha--” 

Asra’s arm ropes around her waist at the same time he bends down to pick up the cat, yanking them both into a alley shooting off of the street. He presses her against the wall, the arm closest to the entry is held up against the wall to block most of her vision of the entryway. He radiates off of him icy cold air, frost covering his eyelashes. Yet he seems unworried by it.

“What do you think you’re doing--” She starts again, pushing against him but he’s practically immoveable. Her cat in his other arm begins to squirm, leaping out of his grasp soon enough and hissing at the street. She turns her head, eyes widening at what she  _ can _ see of the street.

She at first thought she was hallucinating. That the creatures of wood she saw were all in her head. The creature she saw from before slowly came passed, every step shaking the world around them. 

‘ _ I must be high _ ,’ She thinks to herself glancing down at her cat that was still hissing, ‘ _ He must have done something to me _ .’ Yet there is something oddly familiar about what she is seeing. Like she is reliving an old dream.

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Asra mutters one the creature is gone, hand clenching to a fist before he steps back away from her. 

He looks different, purple eyes somehow brighter and his hair now slicked back. Those pointed ears she  _ knew  _ she saw on full display. The tattoo she saw earlier glowing with a light all of its own. He looks at her and the world almost stops.    
Not from infatuation or puppy love.   
The world stops out of fear.

“What is going  _ on _ , Asra?” She asks, wrapping her arms around herself. She’s starting to panic. Perhaps she is having some sort of breakdown, or this is all a dream. Her cat presses against her legs, jumping into her arms when she opens them. Purring softly against her chest.

“I have to get you home,” He says and looks away from her, taking her upper arm and pulling her away from the wall. Putting the coat he’d been wearing around her shoulders. Pulling the hood up to cover her face. “You can’t stay here.”

“ _ Asra _ ,” She tries again, trying to get him to just listen to her. She grabs onto his shirt and pulls it hard. Less effective when he doesn’t button it up to the collar, but it worked. “Asra, listen to me, what is happening?”

“I’ll explain later, I promise, we have to go,” He brings his arm around her shoulders when she lets go of his shirt. Ushering her out of the alley and back the way they’d come. Occasionally tugging at the hood to keep it down low. He holds her close to his side, his own head tilts down. In the back of her mind, she doesn’t mind being this close to him. Though he is freezing to the touch.   
Every other part of her mind is furious and scared.

However that isn’t her main concern, no.   
It’s the creatures she sees.   
There are people similar to Asra walking around, winged people. Then creatures that hardly look like people at all. Mushrooms that are vaguely human and the size of toddlers with razor sharp teeth. People leading horses that look like they’re made of seaweed on leashes, and-

That is a unicorn.   
She is looking at a unicorn. 

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Asra soon mutters again as he looks behind them, Garbage slowly growing more and more agitated the further they walk. She doesn’t look back, but she can practically feel the eyes looking at them. Following them. He has them pick up the pace, walk becoming more brisk rather than an attempt to blend in like they’d failed to do. The creatures they pass take more and more notice of them, a few falling into step beside them. The ones on Asra’s side he kicks away, on her side Garbage hisses until they fall back. She clutches her cat like a lifeline, as though it’s her only hope of protection here. “I’m sorry, I am so, so sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Asra--” She cuts off when they round a corner and see the apartment building. It is swarming with armed guards, all looking like Asra. Their armour reminding her of sunshine and gold. 

“Of course they know already, of course they do,” He mutters and crosses the street with her. Heading away from the apartment building. She looks over her shoulder at them, all glinting in the sunlight. The same man from the other day seemed to be who they deferred to.    
She needed to know what was happening.

“Where are we  _ going _ , Asra?” She stumbles slightly over a rock, Garbage protesting the unexpected movement. “I swear to God if you’ve drugged me, I’ll-”

“I haven’t, I-,” He lets out a frustrated breath and squeezes her slightly. “I’m sorry, I haven’t done anything to you, not- not on purpose. We’re heading for my place. Until I can fix this…” He shakes his head and goes quiet again.   
She doesn’t ask again, but she will be demanding  _ better  _ answers when they get to his home.

At some point, the world gives way to ice and snow. Her clothing beneath the coat Asra had put on her unfit for the weather. He rubs at her upper arms when her breath becomes visible, trying to keep her warm.   
Fortunately, they appear to reach his home when the city gives way to a frozen forest.

It’s a shack essentially, made of wood gathered from the nearby trees. Small, and the roof covered in a thick layer of snow. He gives her no time to pause, with a crowd still following lazily after them but not crossing to the forest.

“This should be a park--” She says, brow furrowing. She knows this area, she’s been here plenty. It should be a  _ park _ , not some forest.    
She’s been drugged. Without a doubt, this is some awful trip or dream. This isn’t real. 

“I know,” Asra says and opens the door, pushing her through first before closing the door behind them both.   
The inside has neither the chill or warmth she’d felt before, but it’s preferable to the cold and ice. It is also far bigger than she’d expected it to be judging by the outside. The floor made of polished marble and the walls engraved with various scenes she can only assume are out of folklore and mythology. 

Garbage immediately jumps out of her arms, wandering off further into the strange place. She goes to run after him, to stop him from getting too far but Asra puts a hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

“Don’t worry, he probably knows his way around just fine,” He smiles at her, it’s half hearted but not without luster. He frowns not too soon after, hand raising to brush the skin under her eyes. Her head jerking back a few centimeters before he can, but she calms and lets him.

“Eyelash?” She asks, as though asking that and not ‘ _ what did you do to me _ ’ adds some normalcy to the situation. Her hand moves up, taking Asra’s wrist to pull his hand away from her face. There’s the faintest tint of gold on his thumb.

“Hm? Oh, no, no sorry,” He stuffs his hands into his pockets. He sighs softly and his face clears of his worry and concern. “Let us get you home now, yeah?” His hand comes up again, running over her hair.

“Wait- wait I have questions--” She doesn’t finish before the world goes dark and the day disappears from her mind completely.

When her knees give way, he catches her. Cradling her to his chest.   
He should avoid seeing her again, going near that area again. Lucio can find some other place to meet him, he can deal with it.   
He stares down at her face, at the gold slowly appearing underneath her eyes. This couldn’t be the first time this has happened, so who took her here the first time?

The cat returns, sitting at his feet and meowing indignantly at him. As though it disapproved of what he had done.

“What did you expect me to do?” He holds her tighter, turning his eyes to the cat. “Keep her?” the cat huffs, before walking to the door and pawing at it.   
It might not be the first time he’s kept someone. Like a toy, a piece of entertainment until they grew old and withered or the reality of this place drove them insane.    
From there fed to feral fae, or left to wander on their own til their fate claimed them.   
It was what fae did, so he had thought.

“You’re right.”   
“She needs to go home.”

For a few days she doesn’t see Asra, she  _ thinks  _ she does. Sometimes there is a flash of white hair or purple eyes, but when she looks again it’s gone or not what she thought it was.    
Her visions of other creatures don’t disappear either, if anything they increase and she’s half concerned she’ll have to tell a doctor about it. That costs money she can’t afford to lose. Unless she asks her parents for it at the dinner tonight, but then she’d have to explain why she needed it. Be the nutcase daughter they’d  _ love  _ to bury in an asylum if such things were still possible.

Eos sits at her mirror, applying the last bits of makeup to her face. Waiting for eyelash glue to dry while she dusts a golden highlighter over her cheekbones.    
She doesn’t even remember buying it, but it had appeared in her collection and she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Her hands fall into her lap, folded on top of each other. There’s a heavy sigh that falls from her mouth. The anxiety and reluctance drips from her lips like a viscous fluid. 

She doesn’t want to go. She’d rather stay home with her cat and watch something online, or try and use Hyperion’s netflix account to watch something.    
She’s going anyway, but she isn’t going to be happy about it.

“It’s only a couple of hours,” She says to her reflection, nodding to herself. “We can do this, Hyperion’s going to be there, it’ll be fine.” She takes in a deep breath and stands up, grabbing a pair of earrings and putting them in before she heads for the door. Her reflection stares after her when she leaves, brushing down the fabric of the dress before disappearing from the mirror. 

The walk is lonely, with just the cat to accompany her and Hyperion likely having of been called in earlier than she was. She almost wishes she’d seen Asra smoking on the stairs, wishes she could’ve asked him to come with her to scandalize her parents.    
Wishes he’d asked her on a date after he accompanied her back home from work. Wishes she’d taken him to bed, gotten a phone number that actually picked up. Wishes she’d done something to keep him interested in her.    
She worries, but she supposes he’s busy or something.   
Or,   
Just not interested.

“It’ll be better than we think,” She says to Garbage as he trots along beside her, the only sounds on the street were her heels and Garbage’s occasional meow. “It won’t last long and besides, it’ll be good food for sure.” She turns her head, surveying the area. Certainly better than she could be bothered cooking most days.    
There is a flash of white hair, and a familiar shitty parka, walking down the opposite side of the street. Heading the direction she’d come from.

“ _ Asra! _ ” She calls out, the figure she sees half turns and she  _ knows  _ it’s him. There’s a sudden weight lifted off of her chest. She’d missed him, and now he was  _ here _ , by coincidence! Surely the rest of her night will share that fortune.   
She grins, and picks up Garbage to rush across the road without yanking him by the leash. “Asra!  _ Hey! _ ”    
He seems shocked to see her when she runs up to him, his hands instinctively cupping her elbows when she gets a bit closer than she’d intended. Garbage drops down, weaving between his legs. “It’s been a while,” She grins up at him. Fingers just lightly touching the fur of his coat.

“ _ Eos _ , I-” He opens his mouth to say more but nothing comes out, his eyes darting around to look or check for  _ something _ . “I didn’t expect to see you out this late, I was just on my way to see y- oh- are you cold?” He brings his hands to her upper arms, feeling the goosebumps raising. Not that his freezing cold hands make it much better.

“You’re colder than I am. I’m alright, just on my way to-” She rolls her eyes, hand brushing her hair behind her ear, “I’m on my way to my parents place. They want to do this dinner so they can be reminded of how disappointing their children are. Usually I’d bring someone with me but Garbage was the only escort I asked that was free.”

By which she means anyone else had grown bored of her months ago and Asra never picked up his phone. 

“Not a fan of them?” He asks and gestures back to the other side of the street, crossing it with her and Garbage. 

“They  _ are _ my parents,” She shrugs, Garbage trying to paw at Asra’s pants leg as they walk. “But what about you? I haven’t seen you in a while, has everything been alright?” They stop again when they reach the other side, her hands linking together just under her chest.

“I’ve been fine, just, ah, a few things I needed to do that kept me busy. Nothing exciting in the least,” He shoves his hands into his pockets.   
He knows he should just leave, apparently she’s quite susceptible to the sort of events they’d gone through the other day.   
He just doesn’t want to go.

He can see her shoulder sink a little when his hands go to his pockets. Like she’d expected more, a better reason.   
No, almost like she’s familiar with the answer.

“Well, I better get going, I’ll be late otherwise,” She shrugs, patting the side of his arm awkwardly before turning to leave. Her excitement now drained, he clearly had better things to do.    
  
His heart lurches. He knows he should disappear again after this and hope she forgets him.   
Because, of course, that’s what he  _ should  _ want. It’s safer, he knows better now. But he can smell her conditioner in the air, lavender and honey. She is soft, warm. A springtime sun. He knows if he’d shown up to her apartment building like he planned he’d of chickened out, for the fifteenth time. Surely it meant something that they’d come across each other instead?   
He grabs her wrist before she can get too far. She blinks, golden powder on her cheeks glinting in the street lights.

“ _ Wait, _ ” If he doesn’t let her go now he won’t ever. If he doesn’t let her walk away, then how can he expect himself to? He swallows a lump in his throat, she’s golden and she doesn’t even know it. 

“Asra? Is everything okay?” She faces him fully, Garbage meows at their feet but they both ignore him. Her free hands moves to his shoulder. She’s worried,  _ concerned for him _ , after all that time he’d just ignored her.    
She deserved better than this. Than secrets he barely understood himself and magic to keep her from seeing what the world was.

“Do you… Want to watch a movie?” He asks, swallows a lump in his throat. He feels nervous suddenly. As if she might say no and it’ll be the end of the world. “Tonight, that is.”   
He doesn’t even know if there are cinemas still open, if he’ll have to take her to his place and then resist trying to have her then and there. It’s kinder than what he’d of done centuries ago, it’s his heart that has the potential to break now. 

He falls in love too easy, too quickly. Too tender to be fae.

“Tonight?” There’s indecision on her face.    
( _ She’s never disobeyed her parents, not so blatantly. And Hyperion’s on his way there too. What will they do to him? _ ) 

“If this dinner is too important it’s-” 

“No, no. I’d love to,” Her hand slides down his arm, grabbing onto his hand. Her hands are so warm. “I just don’t know any places that’re open.”

“We can head to my place,”  _ Don’t mention Netflix, don’t say Netflix and chill, _ “I-I- I, got a few movies, and we can look something up otherwise.” He lets go of her wrist, rubbing the back of his neck now. She doesn’t let go of his hand, instead there’s a gentle squeeze. Her smile is bright, soft. 

“I’d like that,” She steps closer, standing beside him. Garbage paws at her leg, and she bends to pick him up. “Lead the way?”   
She’ll have to make it up to Hyperion later. 

He listens to her, his attention held tight in her fist as she talks, on the walk to his apartment. She tells jokes and he laughs, he lets go of her hand to wrap his arm around her waist. She is pressed tight to his side.

He takes her to his apartment. And she marvels are the size of it.    
It’s nicer than her place, bigger. Looks more like a CEO’s apartment than it does the apartment of someone who smokes weed on the street. Garbage disappears swiftly into the depths.

Asra proposes dinner first, to make up for the one she’s missing. He insists she sits at the kitchen island while he cooks. And after some determined gentle pushing and shoving of her away from the counterspace and towards the island she finally agrees. Watching him as he stirs whatever he’s making in his frying pan. He took off his jacket when they got inside, and quite fortunately for her his shirt is tight. The planes and dimensions of his shoulders and back quite noticeable.

“Did your shirt shrink in the wash, or do you always have shirts that… Tight?” Not that she minds in the slightest, just  _ look  _ at those shoulders. She could use those as some good foot rests during… Things.    
She covers her mouth to stifle a giggle when she sees his cheeks turn a nice rosy colour, he’s cute. Sweet. “I mean I’m not going to  _ complain _ if this is something you normally do _. _ ” No, not at all.

He clears his throat, stirring the contents of the pan one more time before he answers. “It was, uh, just the first thing I saw that morning.”   
That’s a lie and he knows it. He’d worn it because he’d intended on impressing Eos to make up for his radio silence. He wanted her to think good of him.   
Apparently she did. 

“Mm, well I love your wardrobe. Psychedelic hipster mixed with some very  _ fine _ attire. You hit all my good spots.”

“Oh I can hit some good spots, believe me.” He looks over his shoulder at her, with quite the smirk on his face. She can barely form a response beyond chuckling, leaning forward with her chin in her hand. 

_ He’s beautiful _ , she thinks. Biting at her lip as she watches him. The glint of those white eyelashes in the kitchen light, the black eyeliner that frames his eyes. His lips, they look so  _ soft _ , luxurious. She’s kissed him before, and he’s kissed her. She could do it for days on end and never get tired of it. 

“So… What  _ are _ you making?” She shifts in her seat, “You know, since you refuse to let me help.” She can  _ cook _ , really well too. He should let her help.

“You’re  _ my  _ guest, that’d be rude,” He puts a lid over a pan, simmering something away. “It’s lamb Biryani.”   
Biryani… She’s going to have to google that. It sounds familiar. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever had it before, should be interesting.”    
She’s already on the wikipedia page for it. Scrolling slowly through all the little tidbits of information the website offers her. 

“You’ll love it, trust me,” He glances at her, seeing her distracted and slips something from his pocket into the dish. If he’s tearing her away from a family dinner, then he’s going to make sure this one is the best damn dinner she’s ever had to make up for it.    
And, perhaps he can close her eyes to some realities of the world while he’s at it. If she’s going to be around him so much, she’ll need it.    
If it even works. 

“I’ll try not to judge you too harshly, but I can’t guarantee the same of Garbage.”

“I severely doubt your cat is going to be willing to eat this, it’s a little hot.”

“Oh no, he’s a presentation judge. He’s got an eagle’s eye and a brain for fine detail. I’ll try to restrain him, but,” She clicks her tongue, shrugging. He places his hand over his heart, bowing to her solemnly. 

“I guarantee you that it shall receive the highest marks Garbage,” His lips twitch, so hard to remain serious with a name like  _ that _ , “Has ever given in his entire culinary career.”

“Bold words for a man who wears a technicolor dreamcoat he stole from a second hand store.”

“I’ll have you know I stole it from someone who was going to give it to Goodwill anyway, it’s finding much better use with me.”

“It looks like you strolled right out of a shittier version of broadway.”

“You’re the one going on dates with me.”

“I happen to  _ like _ shittier versions of broadway.” His laughter is magical, and not too soon after he puts a plate down in front of her, kissing her cheek as he does. It’s a wonderful looking dish, vibrant in colour and smells  _ fantastic _ . “Especially shitty versions of broadway that cook amazing looking food for me.” 

They talk throughout their dinner, Eos always reaching out to touch, and Asra returns each one. She insists she helps him with washing up, standing closer than they need to as she washes and he dries. 

He whips her ass with the tea towel and she splashes him with water. His arms wrap around her waist as he kisses her when they’re finished. Her lip gloss tastes like something sweet, bubblegum maybe. Berry-esque. She presses against him, no inch of their bodies separated. It feels fast, it is, but with her wrapped up in him he can’t object.

His fingers dig into her sides, into her ribs. As though the lack of space between them isn’t enough, hungering for more. 

She pulls away, kisses pressed down along his jaw and neck. 

“Movie?”

“Movie.”

..

Eos sits on the couch, watching Asra bent over rifling through his DVD cupboard. 

“Fifty first dates?” He holds up a DVD case, she hums for a moment. Eyes more on his ass than the DVD he’s trying to show her. But the message does get across. 

“Adam Sandler? Effective birth control, like crocs.”    
He laughs, tucking the disc away back into the cupboard. Fingers sliding along the covers of the rest to pick out another one.

“Not a fan of him? I can see why.”

“He only makes movies because he has a lot of friends, not because he’s any good. That and product placement. Don’t you have anything like… The Princess Bride.”

“Into fantasy?” He pauses, head turning slightly to look at her over his shoulder. Hanging on for her answer. It isn’t like she would know, surely she’d have stopped seeing… All of that by now.  It’d been too long. 

“I  _ love _ a good fairytale,” She smirks at him, winking. His hair falls in front of his ears, and yes she  _ sees _ it again. The pointed tips, there’s frost at his fingertips- no wonder his hands had been so  _ cold- _ and it almost confirms everything.   
She has to touch him, to make sure she isn’t just… Crazy. 

He laughs, turning his head away again. Pulling a DVD out.   
“Well I’m not sure I can give you fairytale, but I can give you The Princess Bride.” He holds the cover up like a trophy, closes the cupboard and heads over to the couch to sit down next to her. He pecks her cheek, and she gives a new hum at the affection. Arm lying along the back of the couch as he puts the disc into the DVD player. Beckoning him closer when he comes back, having him lay his head on her chest. She strokes his hair as the movie starts. 

“I don’t know about fairytale yet, but you could be my prince charming,” She feels him chuckle on her. Hand sliding from her hip and up the side of her ribcage. 

“I think you’ll find I can be  _ quite _ charming,” His voice is a purr, lips pressing to the underside of her jaw and neck. He can feel her heartbeat under his other hand. He kisses further down, feels her heart skip. Nipping at her collarbone. 

He feels her fingertips under his chin, tilting his head up. Her lips press to his and he forgets it all. Legs rearranging so he’s settled between her thighs, mouth hungrily pressing to hers. She says his name against his lips, and he is so close to just ripping her dress off of her. 

She might beat him to it. 

The movie is forgotten in the background, her hands find their way under his shirt. Pushing it up as she runs her hands up his back. He sits back, pulling it over his head and tossing it. Her fingers feeling over his stomach and chest as she leans up to meet him. Tongue sliding over tongue. She gathers the skirt of her dress up, bunching it up at her waist before she pulls it off. He grabs her hips, lifting her up against him as he grinds slowly into her. Mouth to hers, then at her jaw, her neck. He sucks and bites at her skin, encouraged by her little gasps and moans. 

“ _ Asra,”  _ Her voice a breathy moan as her hand runs up the back of his neck and into his hair. He presses open mouthed kisses down her chest, thumbs pulling down the straps of her bra the lower he gets. He feels her heart jump under his mouth, teeth grazing against her skin. It wouldn’t take much to just bite down. He  _ could _ bite into her chest, rip out her heart with his teeth and have her  _ thank _ him for it. Her eyes could glaze over with a mere enchantment as he tears into her. Hear the crunch of bone, frantic muscle trying to stay alive.   
Shouldn’t he do it? Is that not what he’d done before, because he’s  _ fae _ and that’s what humans are for? 

He freezes. His own heart racing, from fear of himself. He could devour her then and there, in more ways than one. He doesn’t realise he’s bitten down too hard until she tugs at his hair, a soft kiss pressed to her breast and an apology murmured against her skin.

Her free hand unclasps her bra, and he tosses it to the side. Running the tip of his tongue over one of her nipples before he pinches at it. Abandoning her breast to kiss down her stomach. Lavishing at the soft flesh. She’s warm and so human and so  _ bright _ . 

He pulls the hem of her lacy underwear down with his teeth, eyes locked onto her face as he leans in to bury his face between her legs. Pressing soft kisses to the insides of her thigh. Merely grinning when she gives him an impatient whine and tug at his hair. Breathing her in before he presses his tongue against her. Delighting in her soft  _ “Fuck _ ,” when he kisses and sucks at her clit.

This wasn’t what he intended when he brought her here. But it’s so worth it to hear her moans and feel the way her thighs clench under his hands. Her hand running through his hair, brushing passed his ears.

“Wait,” Her voice is unsteady and uncertain. “Wait, I don’t-”    
He pulls away, leaning up over her to brush some of her hair from her face. She looks nervous, not ready.

“We can wait.”

He helps her dress, and lays with her on the couch. Positions adjusting, her on top of him with her head on his chest. His hands rub up and down along her sides, over her hips. They had to restart the movie, but it isn’t like either of them minded. 

She turns her head, kisses his throat. His pulse jumps. 

He shouldn’t love her like this.   
Shouldn’t start to.

She buries her face into the crook of his neck, head turned for one eye to peek out and watch the screen. 

He doesn’t know when she falls asleep, but he carries her to his room when the movie is over. He curls around her, holding her tight to his chest. There’s a tightness around his heart, like rubber bands are preventing it from beating too much, from pounding against his chest and are starting to break even as they get tighter and constrict the muscle. 

He presses a kiss to her shoulder, sharp  _ fae _ teeth grazing for just a moment before he buries his face in her hair and sleeps. She is a warm presence in his arms, like holding a star or a campfire. 

By the morning, she’s twisted around in his arms. Head tucked under his chin, and hand resting over his heart. 

They wake up and he kisses her. They have breakfast, they kiss again and  _ again _ .    
He kisses her fingertips at the door just before she leaves, and asks him if she can come over again.

_ Yes _ , he’d breathed in response, _ come over anytime _ . 

She leaves, and he closes the door and presses his knuckles to his lips. Lost in the feeling of her lips on his.

She leaves, and she heads down to the street, and her fingers twitch with the memory of her hands rubbing against pointed ears and the feeling of sharp teeth biting her skin. 

As if decided by fate, at the same time they bring a hand up over their heart and smile. Beating once, twice, three times in sync.

She goes home that night, and writes down what she knows.

Asra isn’t human, there’s no chance of that. He’s odd around her, into her then disappearing then into her again.   
He’s cute, and smells like cinnamon and allspice. His hair is  _ so much  _ fluffier in the morning. He makes an excellent breakfast and dinner. He likes to hold her hand but prefers his hands on her hips.   
He seems to like her.    
No, he definitely does.   
The entire definitely-not-human thing keeps taking a back seat to the fact he  _ likes _ her.

But no, it’s an important fact.   
There’s gaps in her memory, an  _ entire day _ . And she’s seeing things, things that can’t be real. 

She glances out her window, to a street filled with creatures of all kinds.   
Things that are most definitely real after the information she managed to get.   
What she’d thought were just hallucinations can be touched.

He’s real.   
_ They’re  _ real.

She pulls her phone out of her pocket, debating whether she should tell Hyperion about this. About Asra, what he is.   
He’ll think she’s insane. He’s never not believed her before. Maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea, it might be dangerous.   
She needs someone she can trust on her side. 

She dials his number, lifts the phone and waits for him to pick up.

“ _ Hello? _ ”

“I need you to come over, there’s something… Important I have to tell you.” She fiddles with the fabric of her pajamas. How can she even bring this topic up to him? She has no proof beyond what she has touched and seen, neither are physical evidence she can present to her brother. She’ll just have to rely on trust. 

“ _ You’re not pregnant, are you? _ ”

What? 

“What- No! Jesus- No!  _ No _ . Would you just come over?” Why does he automatically assume that, it’s ridiculous. 

“ _... Alright, but you better not be pregnant. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. _ ” 

They hang up, and she looks over her notes.    
She doesn’t know what’s going on, but she can certainly find out easily enough. Once she has someone else who knows what might’ve gone on if she disappears. 

Her phone lights up again.

It’s Asra, just a text.   
It doesn’t say anything, it’s just a heart. 

She sends one back.

It’s very fast. She isn’t sure if it should be.    
It feels nice, but…   
Maybe that’s something else to ask Hyperion about as well. About if it’s okay. 

..

Smoke floats around his head, a myriad of colours that dance in shapes and figures. It shows him scenes, of pure imagination, of memories.    
He takes another hit, and when he blows the smoke out, it’s  _ her _ . A silhouette of her. But he knows her form, the curve of her cheek and curl of her hair. 

He lays back, holding his blunt to the side just to watch the smoke figure fade away with the motion of a kiss blown towards him. He floats on a bed of stars and the scent of saffron. 

The next cloud of smoke comes out in the shape of hearts and stars, and he pictures holding her in his arms. Kissing her neck, holding her tight and protecting her from the things he knows she sees. Showing her the delights of a world that’ll drive her insane and taking her home before it’s too late.

Of keeping her.   
Of letting her go.   
Of knowing when to let go and wanting to never let go.

He’s so used to keeping the ones he likes, all fae are.   
This one, he wants to keep safe this time.

**Author's Note:**

> is there plot? maybe  
> will there be more because the story isnt Technically finished? we'll see   
> i just wanted to have fun and write this and so i did


End file.
